Release Notes: BIQ 5.03

Install (general)

The BIQ install has changed to an msi-based InstallShield install. There are three types of BIQ install kit. The first part of the filename indicates the type:

BIQSetup / Full install. Installs the BIQ client, installs and starts BIQ services. Can be used on machines that have never had BIQ installed or to upgrade existing BIQ version 3.2+ full install. Note: full installs are refused if a client install is present.
BIQUpgradeSetup / Upgrade install. Upgrades the BIQ client and server. Can only be used on machines that have BIQ version 3.2+ full installed.
BIQClientSetup / Client-only. Installs the BIQ client. Note: client installs are refused if a full install is present.

The second part of the filename is the version. For example, an upgrade-only install kit for version 4.01 revision 5000 would be named: BIQUpgradeSetup_4_01_5000.exe

When a new version is released, Upgrade and Client-only kits can obtained at Full installs require a userid/password login to a different location, supplied by BIQ or by a BIQ distributor.

Administrator privileges are required to run any of these kits. Although some forms of install (client-only, upgrade-only) were possible in many cases under Windows XP without administrator privilege, changes made by Microsoft to the Windows security model under Vista and Windows 7, and/or by company IT departments under XP, now make this impossible in most cases.

New Installs

Run the install kit and follow these steps:

  1. Accept the terms in the license agreement.
  2. Enter the Serial Number.
  3. Choose the destination folder. In most cases the default folder is the correct one to use.
  4. (Full only) Choose the data folder where datasets and log files will be stored. The default is the windows [CommonAppDataFolder] which is usually the correct choice.
  5. (Full only) Select the Port Number that the BIQEngine and MySQL services will use. The defaults is 80 and 3306 respectively. If either of these ports are busyyou can enter a new one, or have the installer find free ports by hitting the Auto Select button. Note: If you plan to install Skype or some other program which also uses port 80 you should change the BIQEngine port now.
  6. Press Install.

Note: If MySQL is already installed on the machine, and it is not a BIQ install of MySQL, the install process will terminate with an error.

Upgrade Installs

When upgrading from BIQ version 3.283 or earlier, the install works similarly to a new install, except that existing datasets are preserved (there is nothing to preserve in client-only upgrades). Please see the New Installs section above.

Note: Release 3.283 used a data directory that is only writeable by the user that installed the application. If this BIQ install will be used by multiple users on the same machine, please change the data folder to a common area during the install.

When upgrading BIQ version 4.0 or greater to a new version of BIQ, the installer does not need to ask any questions. It will stop any services, upgrade the application, and restart the services.

Install Issues

If there are any issues during the install, please follow these steps to help diagnose the problem: (1) Check the "Show the Windows Installer log" checkbox before pressing Finish. This will bring up BIQ_Install.log in a text editor. Save this file to a place you can remember, and then please email the file to .

If you have already closed the installer, the log file can be found in: %TEMP%\BIQ_Install.log. To access this folder, type the string “%TEMP%” into Windows Explorer (NOT Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer – the application that launches when you click the “My Computer” icon). Omit the double quotes.

Release 5.03.xxxx (changes since 5.0.2.xxxx)

Significant changes

  1. New feature: BIQ now supports a new statistical measure, NCount which counts unique items in the specified dimension with respect to another. Issue #3730.
  2. New feature: The new "Automated Batch" feature allows configuration of a directory where new files can be dropped, and have them automatically loaded into a dataset. Issue #3652.
  3. New feature: BIQ now uses version 5.5 of the MySQL relational database management system. Issue #1068.
  4. New feature: BIQ now supports UTF-8 (multi-byte) character sequences for node names. Issue #3795.
  5. New feature: The icon in the start bar has been modified to show the progress of the current task and provides easy access to other BIQ tools like the loader and chopper. Issue #3656.
  6. Performance improvements:
  • Performance improvements to the dimension editor loading and scrolling have been made. Issue #3665.
  • Performance improvements for searching rules, expand all have been made. Issue #3615.

Viewer, Loader, Chopper

  1. The logic controlling licensing grace periods has been enhanced. Issue #3737, #3800.

Viewer

  1. When importing rule changes with a filterset that contains a fullqual that ends with right square bracket, the rule clause is changed to No-match-found. Issue #3797.
  2. When importing rules display error information for each line which has an error instead of the overall rule.Issue #3787.
  3. Some of the viewer's large icon active box sides are being cut off.Issue #3790.
  4. A new live crosstab data block, popped in and then popped out end up with zero width.Issue #3792.
  5. Deleting a dimension blox which is hidden and automatically restarting the viewer causes an exception when saving the windows state.Issue #3793.
  6. A rare exception related to transaction extract has been fixed. Issue #3794.
  7. The user is now asked for contact information during installation and once a year after that. Issue #3785.
  8. In rare cases, an exception would occur when an excel crosstab was run where the number of calculated lines are greater than integer max. Issue #3780.
  9. Exception when adding more than one meta-measure at a time. Issue #3781.
  10. Cut and paste from results window in search to search entry text box in dimension editorcould cause fault.Issue #3782.
  11. Double clicking when the pink mapping windowswas displayed does not pop in a popped out window.Issue #3746.
  12. During the second edit of the same rule the yellow filter icon does not work.Issue #3747.
  13. In the viewer, closing from the taskbar does not save the state of the viewer windows.Issue #3748.
  14. Made search form slightly larger so the search phrase text box is not so close to the edge of the form.Issue #3742.
  15. In rare cases, a multi-dimensional extract set to an intermediate level, would not produce any output. Issue #3744.
  16. Editing of a rule fails if the node to display from the filter is in a dimension which is hidden, Issue #3738.
  17. New help text was added to the multi-dimensional extract window. Issue #3735.
  18. In rare cases an exception would occur when using the pink mapping window.Issue #3733.
  19. In rare cases an exception would occur while removing filter in a dataset. Issue #3729.
  20. Clicking on the outline of the red box in the viewer will drill even if the right mouse is pressed. Issue #3731.
  21. Rare corruption in one of the rules database tables would prevent the cube from loading. Issue #3725.
  22. The import change file process now detects and warns if a malformed hierarchy is detected. Issue #3727.
  23. No longer expand all rule groups before marking: now, only expand groups of marked rules. Issue #3657.
  24. The inconsistent rules report now reports on pending rules rather than applied rules. Also, now warns if pending rules are unapplied. Issue 3659.
  1. Allow editing of target and filter node within any number of marked rules. Issue #3674.
  2. Disable rule group feature now blinks warning label. Issue #3692.
  3. In rare cases, the wrong mapping fullqual would be created when exporting rules. Issue #3722.

Viewer, loader

  1. A minor issues related to a rules performance enhancement was resolved: Issue #3796.
  2. Export dataset now correctly checks for free space on the target disk. Issue #3799.

Loader

  1. Index range start and end data types should not be allowed to be different when creating a range based index.Issue #3812.
  2. When using the $[<source name]}$ macro in a fact expression it was always being replaced with the first transaction source name. Issue #3814.
  3. Adding a range dimension with anything other than integers fails with errors.Issue #3809.
  4. Add ability to recreate an indexes extract index information on the dataset administration tab.Issue #3810.
  5. Under some circumstances, the loader would claim that the file has too few columns after a preprocessor run. Issue #3784.
  6. Transaction browsing in the loader fails when the maximum order or id is larger than the number of fields, Issue #3749.
  7. Unhandled exception in the loader during add transactions when there is a bad preprocessor transform saved in the database. Issue #3750.
  8. Date issue in Browse transactions. Issue #3752.
  9. Issue #3754: The new loader fails when parsing floating point strings with a currency symbol
  10. If you run the "Check for damage" report twice in a row after having fixed the problem it still reports BadLevels with an empty BadExample.Issue #3756.
  11. The Thin Index screen looks strange on small displays when there are multiple dimensions derived from the index. Issue #3758.
  12. In some cases, thin index would report errors.Issue #3759.
  13. Add more index addition time always the same in dataset report, Issue #3761.
  14. Thin with respect to picking the wrong dimension, ignoring user's request, Issue #3764.
  15. When prompting the user for a dimension name don't show a dialog first that the userhas to dismiss. Issue #3765.
  16. When adding to existing index without changing the input file the preview tab showed no columns. Issue #3766.
  17. Enhanced checking of existing CustomerTable streams for damage and recreating them if necessary. Issue #3768:
  18. DBUpdate failure when upgrading between BIQ versions that are too far apart. Issue #3770.
  19. Missing dimension name in preferences causes an unwanted error message while loading the cube.Issue #3773.
  20. After deleting a dimension, modifying a field in the same loader session does not update the database.Issue #3774.
  21. Adding transactions with a deleted fact expressions can cause errors in rare cases.Issue #3775.
  22. Compact dataset faults with certain forms of badly formatted rules. Also write list of bad rules to viewer log.Issue #3776.
  23. $[<source name]}$ macro is not in the dropdown list during expression editing when making a new dimension.Issue #3777.
  24. Recent currency fix, broke meta rollup dimensions. Issue #3778.
  25. Loader inserting biqother (start = -1, end = -1) into dimrange info for meta rollup dimensions.Issue #3779.
  26. The integrated preprocessor in the loader was taking a long time to show lines in the Preview tab. Issue #3745.
  27. Add measure count blurb to the top of the Modify dataset>Measures tab. Issue #3739.
  28. The dataset name on the loader main form was adjusted to look better for datasets with a very long name. Issue #3736.
  29. IndexOutOfRangeException while loading transactions. Issue #3723.
  30. Same field name are allowed issue during Add field to fact. Issue #3715.
  31. Exception in the loader when running the dimension node report. Issue #3717.

Chopper

  1. If one or more fields specified in the transform file are missing from the input file report them all to the user. Issue #3811.
  2. Chopper was stopping on an error about missing column name when a joined file with suffix was used. Issue #3786.
  3. Chopper generates and exception with ambiguous "There were errors" message when an output field is missing from the input file. Issue #3783.
  4. Unhandled exception in choose file to transform window. Issue #3719.
  5. Unhandled exception in joined files tab. Issue #3724.
  6. Add the ability to store a suffix with the join file which is added to the label of any output field created from this joined file. Issue #3728.

Release 5.02.xxxx (changes since 5.0.1.xxxx)

Significant changes

  1. Performance improvements: Substantial performance improvements were made in numerous areas of the product, including:
  • Searching by RuleID (issue #3707)
  • Starting the viewer with datasets containing large numbers of nodes (issue #3693)
  • Dimension editor loading and scrolling (issue #3665)
  • Selecting a dataset for modification in the loader (issues #3687, #3632)
  • Change file importing (issue #3691)
  • Transaction data extract (issue #3603)
  • Searching rules, expand all (issue #3615)
  • Create sub dataset (issue #3622)
  • Drilling, repainting data blocks (Issue #3627)
  • Rule application (red and green buttons) (issue #3698)
  1. New feature: It is now possible to import multiple change files in one step (issue #3633).
  2. New feature: It is now possible to import and export filter sets (issue #3634).
  3. New feature: It is now possible to create time dimension containing dates beyond 2038 (issue #3637).
  4. New feature: It is now possible to invert rule marks (issue #3640).
  5. New feature: It is now possible to create a dimension derived from mapping rules (issue #3657).
  6. New feature: Two new rules reports have been added: Inconsistent and duplicate rules (issue #3659).
  7. New feature: Greatly expanded rule filtering in rule management window (issue #3663).
  8. New feature: Disable one or more rule groups to gauge impact on dataset (issue #3692).
  9. New feature:Allow editing of target and filter node within any number of marked rules (issue #3674).
  10. New feature: Significant changes to the dataset are now written to anaudit log(issue #2651).
  11. New feature: A new template was added for "Years, months" to time dimension node generator (issue #3683).
  12. New feature: New installations on Windows 10 machines will now default to square window corners. A new preference has been added that overrides the default (issue #3651).
  13. New feature: The fields tab in the loader now contains more descriptive field count information (issue #3631).
  14. New feature:Allow the user to get to recent datasets and other tools by right clicking the viewer icon on the start bar. Also, progress of the current task is now displayed within the icon located on the start bar (issue #3656).

Viewer, Loader, Chopper

  1. The “buffer and memory management” functions on the server admin tab have been moved to a separate tab (issue #3678).
  2. The exception handling dialog has been improved and now allows “Copy to clipboard” and “Mail to BIQ” (issue #2357).
  3. Drop down combo boxed throughout the entire system now allow for searching using the first letter by pressing upper case letters on the keyboard (issue #3653).
  4. The splash screens in the dataset loader and chopper were not resizing correctly (issue #3662).
  5. Spurious delays have been removed from the license information window (issue #3625).
  6. Moving the mouse away from the primary monitor while BIQ was initializing could cause resizing and window location issues (issue #3626).

Viewer

  1. It was possible to resize a data block to a size that was too small to display correctly and this caused errors (issue #3695).
  2. A .net compatibility issue with Windows Server 2003 was addressed (issue #3706).
  3. Incorrectly formatted rules (rare) now display an error format that includes the missing NodeID (issue #3708).
  4. Data blocks in the viewer now have a minimum size of at least 2 data lines (issue #3666).
  5. The dropdown on the nodal CML editing window was not working correctly (issue #3667).
  6. Application fault when renaming measures from the fields tab, related to cross checking meta measures (issue #3675).
  7. The logic that controls the “don’t ask me again” sequence was broken in the import rules function (issues #3239, #3672).
  8. Create sub dataset caused an application fault in same cases (issue #3619).
  9. Incorrect preference handling when only non-dimension blocks are displayed (issue #3620).
  10. Incorrect block size after cloning dimension (issue #3621).
  11. Minor adjustment to the show filters combo box size (issue #3624).
  12. In some cases, multi-dimensional extracts with reference queries at drill positions not showing accurate results (issue #3641).
  13. Progress bar not working correctly for extract containing less than 1000 transactions (issue #3543).
  14. Cloning a dimension with rules changes the order of the rules in the cloned dimension, also LastModDate is reset to all zeros (issue #3654).
  15. BuildCMLFastCompare entry dialog auto selecting and not displayed for user to choose a filter (issue #3655).
  16. In rare circumstances, charting could cause an application fault on datasets in need of compaction (issue #3660).
  17. The “Configure meta extract” window was resized to handle display resolutions less than 1300 x 958 (issue #3661).

Loader

  1. The loader allowed duplicate field names when adding fields to fact (issue #3715).
  2. The dimension node report sometimes caused a fault (Issue #3717).
  3. Dataset sizing information was not being updated after removing a transaction source (issue #3699).
  4. Thin index could potentially cause a fault (issue #3696).
  5. In rare circumstances, the loader’s main window could be displayed off of the primary display (issue #3681).
  6. Editing an expression for field types other than string could cause a fault (issue #3682).
  7. Dates fields saved during transaction browsing contained the period character (issue #3686).
  8. The truncate before load option was not always correctly recorded for fact and index sources (issue #3688).
  9. It is now possible to add a node to an existing time or range node when creating these types of dimensions (issue #3690).
  10. The loader main window now contains notifications (issue #3676).
  11. It is no longer possible to name a field “TXID” or “Count” (issue #3677).
  12. The loader could skip the first line of an index or transaction source if the input file did not contain a header line (issue #3679).
  13. Additional dataset corruption checks have been added to the loader before the dataset can be modified (issue #3703).
  14. In rare cases, a fault could occur when deriving a flattened dimension when an expression field as missing from one or more source (issue #3608).
  15. The loader could potentially drop the demo dataset because of suspected damage (issue #3611).
  16. The loader would sometimes display an extra icon in the taskbar (issue #3635).
  17. When adding multiple fields to the source definition from a file the names are all the same as the first field name (issue #3630, L0040).
  18. Add the ability when browsing transactions to save without dynamic and/or TXID (Issue #3711).
  19. When deleting one dimension in the new loader if there was an extract conflict, the dimension is no longer deleted (issue #3648).

Chopper

  1. The chopper no longer shows the TXID field when it is run integrated into the loader (issue #3673).
  2. The chopper can now load transforms created by older versions of the chopper (issue #3680).
  3. The chopper no longer displays erroneous “Possible syntax error” warnings (issue #3697).
  4. Changes to the separation character are now handled correctly by the chopper (issue #3702).

Admin

  1. The SQL tool located in the administration utility tool now works correctly (issue #3639).

Release 5.01.xxxx (changes since 5.0.9440)

Significant changes

  1. New feature: The loader user interface has been completely overhauled with a focus on usability and clarity (issue #3350). In some cases it may be necessary to use the legacy dataset loader tool to work around a bug or missing feature in the new loader. To launch the legacy loader from the viewer hold down the shift key when clicking on the Dataset menu in the upper left. This will show a menu option called 'Legacy dataset loader' which gives the option to open the legacy loader in either the main screen or to modify the current dataset.
  2. New feature: The File Transform Utility (chopper) user interface has been overhauled with a focus on usability and clarity (issue #3517).
  3. BIQ now requires version 4.0 of the .NET Framework (issues #3356 and #3531). For most systems this will be handled automatically during the upgrade process.

Viewer, Loader, Chopper